Is making a decision a work ? 2
The Arminian freewiller gospel gives us a camouflage gospel of works parading as salvation by grace through faith. It provides the natural man room to boast in their supposed salvation, yet in their mind they deny such, but affirm that they ascribe their salvation to their freewill decision for Christ. However this is a deception, its a cloak for boasting , its still teaching that salvation is conditioned on man, on his works, will, or decision, his mental effort at the least. He can even boast and say he is saved because of his wisdom or making a wise choice. The true believer however has God given Faith to realize that they have been saved by Grace alone, and what God only by Grace has done, that none of their salvation was conditioned on them. Eph 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works or[my decision], lest any man should boast.
There is a point here about the reality of what is salvation. If salvation is the gaining of an understanding of the gospel which is the point of turning from darkness into light which is eternally sealed, then to detract from this is seen as heresy or boasting if a choice was involved.
There is some irony here. If there is no choice in faith or election, this discussion is pointless, as the elect are destined to be elect and the lost lost. Evangelism or effort in following, or learning or teaching to bring insight or to encourage is equally pointless. For Jesus to invest time and energy into the disciples when they were going to be the apostles and walk the walk no matter what, again had no point.
But the nature of love and Gods argument with satan over Job is all about choice. Satans counter argument was Job was only righteous not because of love or the appreciation of God and His nature but because he had it nice, with wealth and good health. Jobs position was what was his reward or justice with God if he was true and still he got a bad deal. This whole discussion centres around choice, understanding of love and righteousness and choosing this way to walk.
Now a follower of Jesus, obviously cannot claim they have built the road or become justified because of anything they have done. The follower by following is declaring Jesus's love and justification and cleansing of them. In fact without following and acknowledging Christ would be to deny His work. So good works are the reaction to Christ not justification of the believer. As Paul would say, a believer without repentance is no believer at all.
But without realisation and walking Christs work is of no affect.
Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
Heb 5:8-9
Jesus is not the source of eternal life if we do not obey him.
The argument about preaching and sharing is people cannot come into the Kingdom without the Holy Spirit working on them, and people will not hear unless it is preached. And this is about choice and offering it to sinners, which obviously means man has the power to hear and respond or hear and reject as Jesus describes in the parable of the seed and the sower.
What is often missed is why repentance matters and what love is in the believers life and heart. It has meant a pretend version of faith has grown where gnostic beliefs arise and faith is just spiritual with no life affect. God bless you